Have you ever sent out a press release and thought… “Well, let’s see what happens”?
My guest Shauna, did just that and what happened next was a total game-changer.
One carefully crafted release led to hundreds of thousands of pounds in media coverage, interviews across Europe, and a massive leap in visibility for her brand. And the most amazing part? It wasn’t even part of some big PR strategy. It was accidental. Organic. And unbelievably powerful.
In today’s episode, we’re exploring the story behind the story. From launching Ireland’s first frozen baby food brand to scaling it into major UK retailers, all while navigating Brexit, motherhood, and live TV interviews just weeks after giving birth, this conversation is a masterclass in resilience, visibility, and the kind of brave, imperfect action that builds real momentum and maximum impact.
Whether you’re feeling stuck with your content, unsure how to show up, or scared to share your story, this one’s for you. DO NOT miss it!
NOTES:
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Join the Grow Your Brand With Amanda Facebook Community
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to the Grow Your BrandWith Amanda podcast, helping
you become a powerhouse brandwith bullseye messaging,
targeted visibility and scrollstopping content. I'm Amanda
Jane and I want to helpbusinesses like yours showcase
more of you so you're nothiding behind your logo, And
your audience gets to see thereal, authentic personality
(00:21):
behind your brand. Myphilosophy is the only way to
be comfortable in thespotlight is to truly believe
you belong there. And thattakes a little bit of work for
most business owners becausewe're not all naturals in
front of the camera ormicrophone. On this podcast,
I'm going to share lots ofactionable tips and advice to
enable you to grow your brandin a way that's comfortable
(00:42):
for you. I'll also befeaturing special guests who
will share their amazingjourneys with us. It's time to
grow your brand with Amanda,so let's get started.
Hello everyone and welcome tothe first episode of Grow Your
Brand With Amanda podcast. Sothis is the all new version of
(01:02):
my podcast and today I amreally happy to have a fellow
Northern Irelande, ShaunaBlair with me. Shauna is, she
spends her time coachingentrepreneurs who want to
launch their own food brand.Hello Shauna. Hi Amanda. Thank
you for joining me. Thank youso much for having me today.
It's a pleasure to be here.No, I'm really looking forward
(01:23):
to this because I don't oftenget people on my podcast who
share the same accent as me.Hopefully we won't gallop away
with our accents. So before weget stuck in and find out
about your absolutelyfascinating business, because
I just love meeting foodiesand even the thought of it
makes me hungry. We will startwith the questions. So do you
(01:45):
have a favorite motivationalsong? I was thinking about
this before I came on and Ilove music, I love any genre
of music, anything fromtraditional Irish music right
through to dance music, ravemusic, jazz music, anything. I
listen to a lot of music,especially when I'm working. I
have one of those Pomodorotimer things going. But I
(02:06):
think the thing that gets mereally sort of going is a bit
of dance music. I grew up inthe 80s and 90s and That
brings me back to my teenageyears, a lot of the Ibiza
dance music, which I love itand that really does the trick
for me. suppose there'snothing really in particular
in terms of the types theactual songs. It's really just
(02:30):
that genre that would reallyget me going. It just whisks
you back in town, doesn't it?I know. I have four kids, so
my older two, they're 20 and19 and they're heading out on
a Saturday night and thenightclubs don't really seem
to play this kind of musicreally anymore. But when it's
on on a Saturday night I'msort of like oh my god I wish
(02:52):
I was going out again and goto the disco and like that
that doesn't happen now thatrave music is not the thing I
had the time of my lifegrowing up in Ireland with the
clubs and the music and all ofthat and I do miss it and I
never find the same kind ofvibe in England but I know
exactly what you're describingand I'm just like oh I can't
(03:13):
believe that that kind of Themovement is gone. It was the
best time of my life. I lovedit. If I hear the 80s, 90s, it
just whisks me right back. Itdoes energise you, doesn't it?
It does. It definitely does. Ithink it brings you back to
just that It was a time ofyour life where it was
complete freedom, there was nomobile phones, there was no
(03:34):
cameras, it was just everybodyjust went out and enjoyed
themselves and it was great.Yeah, it was. It was the very
best of times. And do you havea motivational quote? I have a
couple actually, I wasthinking about this as well
and I think mine range fromfamily members right through
to other people. I think oneof the ones that was sort of
(03:56):
suggested to me many yearsago, like 15 years ago when I
started out in business wasAnd I have remembered that
ever since and at the time Inever really put a lot of
thought into it and what itactually meant because I was
kind of green and I didn'treally know what I was getting
into. My background is I comefrom a family business, a
(04:19):
family engineering business,working in also in sort
government offices here inNorthern Ireland and I started
my own food brand and so Forme to move from that
environment into being anentrepreneur took a lot of
getting uncomfortable in mysurroundings and pushing my
boundaries and learning a lotof new things and I very
(04:40):
quickly learned to, you know,realize the meaning behind get
comfortable with beinguncomfortable because every
single day I was learning newthings, I was pushing my
boundaries, I was puttingmyself into positions that I
never had been in before, youknow, speaking on Live TV,
speaking on camera, speakingon radio, different things
like that, being interviewedand, you know, up talking
(05:02):
public speaking and so gettingcomfortable with being
uncomfortable for me, it's alifelong thing really because
we should always be trying topush our boundaries and always
trying to I suppose just tryand maybe achieve more and
learn more in differentdifferent areas but yeah that
has been a big one for me andthen another one I actually
picked this up from my fatherlast week we were having a
(05:24):
chat just about life stuffreally and you know he was
saying to me it's not really aquote it's such as more of a
sort of a bit of a bit of aconversation but he was just
really talking about theimportance of just keeping
things steady and when allthrough your life just Keep
things steady. I think we weretalking about kids and my
(05:45):
nieces and nephews and theadvice that he would be giving
them for their life really isjust try and keep things
steady, don't get overlyexcited about things, don't
get overly impatient andparticularly don't get really
impatient if things aren'tgoing your way, your life will
unfold as it's meant to. Andjust try and stay
level-headed. Don't get intoany big dramas or anything
(06:05):
like that. And I thought, youknow, that's a really good bit
of advice for these youngerpeople that are, you know,
they're probably a bitimpatient, probably things
aren't happening as quickly asthey want them to. I think we
can all fall into that a weebit, you know, especially in
business, if you're pushingand pushing forward all the
time and things maybe aren'tunfolding as quickly as you
want them to, they willeventually, that will
(06:27):
eventually happen. You justtrust and keep a level head,
things will unfold. And thenfinally, I have been sick this
week, so I've been off sickwith the kids and I actually
had an opportunity to read abook from start to finish,
which is completely unheardof, this is like, this is
unheard of for me, it usuallytakes me a month to get
through a book, but wasreading a book and one of the
(06:50):
quotes that was in the bookwas, the right person, I'm
going to get this right nowbecause it's a really good
one, the right person with theright process never worries
about the outcome. And it'sreally about when you're
setting goals, it's not somuch the goal that you need to
be focused on. It's becomingthe type of person who can be
(07:11):
committed to the plan who willeventually achieve those
goals. And it's about becomingthe person that will achieve
those goals. So the rightperson with the right process
never worries about theoutcome. And I think that's
really can be a big reminderthat when we are setting all
these big goals for ourbusiness, Maybe we need to
think about what we need to doand the processes that we need
(07:35):
to put in place to ensure thatwe meet those goals and not
beat ourselves up about notachieving those goals in the
future then. Wow that's soamazing and I think you're
right a lot of people are sortof afraid of goals and afraid
of putting them down and thenif they've written the goals
down they don't think aboutthe steps that it's going to
take to achieve those goalsand but I really love that
(07:55):
it's quite profound. Yeah Ithink for me it was a big
realization this week becauseI have always struggled with
setting goals you know there'ssometimes you can set them and
they're a bit high in the skyand you know you're never
really gonna achieve them butyou just like these you put
these big And I think lookingat it from a different
(08:15):
perspective and actuallyworking from the bottom up and
actually saying, what kind ofperson do I need to become to
achieve those goals? And it'sabout changing your process
and changing your mindset,really. And plugging gaps. For
me, it was about identifyingthe gaps I needed to plug to
get to the next stage andidentifying the knowledge gaps
that I had, which was quiteuseful. I've been fixed on
(08:38):
goals and thinking what do Ineed to get from A to B and
plugging those gaps in butlooking at the process and
trusting the process if Ilearn this and I learn this
because when I started mybusiness you know had some
knowledge but not of things wewere talking about earlier.
What's the funnel, how to do asales page, the lead magnet,
you know that. Using the leadmagnet as the most basic of
(09:02):
examples we as consumers havebeen doing it all our lives
but to be on the other side ofit and create this thing that
everybody wants you know itall kind of slotted into place
when you think about behindthat but was it your
father-in-law that you said ummy own father yeah my father
yeah that's genius It's, youknow, just chill, don't run,
(09:25):
because you can find yourselfgetting into, not quite
hysteria, but things aren'thappening quick enough and I
think that's probably the agethat we're living in because
everything's instantaneous,isn't it? It's all there and I
just think, wow, that's reallygood advice, fantastic. It is
a good one, he's full of,obviously he's older, he's
full of advice and he's livedhis life and he's lived many
(09:48):
different lives and whateverand he's got loads of
information. Sort of tips andhints and whatever but I
thought it was a really goodone because you know I think
it caught up sort of gettinginto a bit of a tizzy as well
and sort of you know gettingpanicking about things and
panicking about things notworking out and oh god there's
another month gone andwhatever but I think I've come
to that stage now where I justrealised you know what it'll
(10:10):
happen if it's going to happenand if it's not going to
happen I cannot force it andit just You just got to go
with that I think. Conserveyour energy for other things
and then the get comfortablewith being uncomfortable I
think for me is the most soundpiece of advice. I was having
a chat with someone a coupleof days ago and we were
talking about know what makesyou uncomfortable and because
(10:34):
I've been doing this for awhile and you know your career
and all the things and I hadto start with that. What am I
not comfortable doing? Becausewhen you set up your own
business you've got to do alot of things that you're not
comfortable with and I thinkI've run out of things you
know because I've done so manythings that you described and
I know that I do a lot ofthings that other people don't
(10:55):
like the thought of like apodcast for example or videoed
or I'm standing up on a stageand speaking and doing all
those things and those thingsthat I've done a lot of, they
would absolutely scare theheart out of a lot of other
people so I've just beenthinking what are you know
what does pull me out of myown comfort zone, but that is
(11:16):
possibly I think the most It'sthe truest useful piece of
advice for anybody setting upa business and someone once
said that if you're preparedto do the things that others
aren't that's where thesuccess is and get in that
ring because there's only fewpeople that will do all the
things in the ring. And if youdon't want to do it, then
(11:40):
you're not going to be able topush yourself forward. So that
that is that is gold dust forme to get comfortable with
being uncomfortable becauseit's not comfortable running a
business and it's lonely andabsolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
There's things that you haveto do that you never dreamt
you'd do. And, you know,that's where the growth
happens, isn't it, really? Itis. And you learn, you
(12:01):
definitely do learn new thingsevery day. And I love that.
And I think that I've noticedwith doing this podcast,
there's always there's acommon denominator with
entrepreneurs and they'reprepared to take that next
risk and the next risk. Andthey're prepared to do things
without knowing the completeoutcome they can anticipate,
but they're never, you know,you can never be 100% certain
(12:21):
on the outcome. And thenthey'll go back to the drawing
board and do it again andthey'll do it again. And I
quite love that resilience inthose people because, you
know, they'll just keep tryingbecause, you know, when you
think about great people thathave gone before us, you know,
There's maybe thousands ofattempts to produce something
and they've kept going andkept going and if it weren't
for those people, you know, wewouldn't be enjoying the
(12:43):
things that we are today, soit's nice to cling on to that
thought, isn't it, so thankyou for that, that's amazing,
you've given me a little tripdown memory lately with my
wild youth in Ireland, so backto your amazing business, it
sounds absolutely fantastic,so what inspired you to start
it and how has your personalstory shaped your brand? So
(13:06):
for me, my story is like overthe last sort of 15 years I
come from a food productbackground so I don't come
from a coaching background ora corporate background really.
I started my own food businessback in 2010, so I launched
Ireland's first ever frozenbaby food company and over the
(13:30):
period of that 10-15 years ittransitioned into an ambient
range of baby food and snacks,so it was called Heavenly and
it was an organic baby foodbrand and we grew that over
the period of 10 years intoall the retailers across the
UK and Ireland. We were inTesco, Morrison, Sainsbury's,
(13:50):
Waitrose, Ocado, Amazon,Tesco, Super Value in Ireland
and we were exporting into 13countries globally and we grew
it quite well. Brexit andCovid came along with
different plans for us so thatliterally impacted our
business from the minuteBrexit was announced. And so
(14:11):
we sold that brand just lastyear. And it probably wasn't
where I wanted the journey togo. I wanted sort of different
plans in mind. Like a lot ofbusinesses, I know so many
food brands and so many otherbusinesses that went out of
business because of Brexit,because of the impact of it,
because of the impact of, youknow, supply chain and just,
(14:33):
you know, the added costs ofthat as well. And then COVID
was just the icing on the cakefor so many companies. So we
sold that brand last year, butfrom sort of 2022 until
current, I launched anotherbrand as well called Beam, so
that was a healthy snackingbrand and it was all allergen
(14:56):
free and healthy and whatever.That particular product I
think I'm rejigging theproduct at the moment and over
the last year or so I havebeen coaching and mentoring
other food finders in theirown businesses, so I have over
15 years of experience in thefood industry so I'm an
entrepreneur side and I'm notin a particular role within a
(15:19):
factory or anything. All areasof the business from
manufacturing right through tolaunching your product to
choosing packaging and all theregulations that all the
things that you have to put onyour packaging and so for me
sort of a natural transitionto mentor other food founders.
I have digital products that Iwant to launch and for me
(15:43):
looking back on where Istarted and sort of the lack
of knowledge that I had when Istarted and the lack of
experience that I had, I camefrom with no knowledge of the
food industry and to thenlaunching food products and
getting them into retailers, Iwant to package that up and
help other food founders andaspiring entrepreneurs create
(16:05):
and sell their own foodproducts. It's incredible to
have had no experience and youknow the markets that you
described and those retailersand you obviously had
competitors within that aswell. I think what you
achieved is unbelievable andyou know the challenges of
(16:26):
Brexit and Northern Irelandhad its own challenges with
Brexit and then Covid. It'sjust phenomenal but now that
you're left with this It's amassive knowledge bank and
you've got this new brand andyou can help other people in
the digital products. I'm justthinking, wow, there's
absolutely no limit now towhat you can do with all that
(16:48):
and helping other founders dothat. Exactly what you've done
is just incredible and soachievable because you've done
it in the hardest ofcircumstances. So what was the
turning point when yourealized that you had to be
more visible to grow wheneveryou were setting up because 15
(17:09):
years or well, what year didyou sell your business? Was
that 2019? So I sold theHeavenly brand just last year.
I still own the business butwe just sold the actual brand
itself. So I think over thecourse of 15 years learning
you know that I had to becomevisible was fairly early on
you know I was back 15 yearsago there was very few female
(17:32):
founders in the food industryand that's you know there was
very very few and I think forme to have some cut through
and to be able to shout aboutmy brand and things like that
I learned that You knowgetting out there and being
visible so it's something I'velearned over the last course
of the 15 years but recentlyyou know for me I'm in my mid
(17:55):
40s to be on social media andtalking doing lives and things
is you know you're really sortof putting yourself out of
your comfort zone but as Isaid earlier you have to get
comfortable beinguncomfortable and just
realizing that people buy frompeople and For me to be
visible and actually forpeople to see that I'm just a
(18:16):
human being, I'm just a mum, Istarted a business just like
many other people, but youknow, to see that I am
actually just a human beingand be able to connect with me
and in terms of my, you know,the visibility that I have,
you know, so sort it's been aculmination of learning over
the last 15 years of beingvisible is really important
that people can actuallyconnect with another human
(18:39):
being so, you know, It's just,I suppose, realizing that
people do buy from people andrealizing that your
personality will be whatpeople will buy and your you
know your ability tocommunicate and all that sort
of stuff so yes for me itwasn't just a light bulb thing
really it was sort of aculmination of learning and
(19:00):
realizing that puttingyourself out there whilst it's
really difficult for somepeople you know and I look
back to 15 years ago and wasreally really tough for me I
had no skill you know trainingin that area no training in
public speaking but you learnas you go along just to to try
and make it work and the thingthat I realized is just the
(19:23):
fact that you know yourbusiness and when you're
speaking about your business,when you're speaking about
what you can do for otherpeople, you know what you're
talking about. So if somebodysaid to me, I want you to go
on social media and I want youto talk about the benefits of
fertilizing your lawn Iwouldn't have a clue but if
(19:44):
somebody said to me I want youto go on social media and I
want you to do a quick videoabout the benefits of PR for
your food brand well thenthat's fine I can talk about
that so just remind yourselfof you know you know your
business so getting visible isa wee bit easier When you
realize that, that you knowwhat you're talking about. And
(20:06):
that's really good advicebecause people forget the
power of their own story andthe people that I talk to and
the first thing they say is,but who's going to be
interested in me? Genuinelyand you know even that that
that founder story or that youknow you're a parent or that
you had to learn everythingthat you did on YouTube or
(20:28):
that you were followingsomeone else on social media
that's always so interestingand even for someone like
yourself you're describing atime not that long ago where
social media wasn't as bigthen as it is now. There
weren't that many femalefounders in the food industry
that you've just described andI'm immediately hooked I'm
thinking yeah you're rightthere wasn't and thinking well
(20:49):
that immediately is immediateinterest story because there
was that you know thereweren't that many female in
the food industry and italways takes someone else to
point out to people that Thatbit of their story is
interesting and then when youdo that they're like oh really
and then you can see theconfidence start to build and
(21:11):
people buy from people, thatis never going to get old and
you might have something inyour personality that
someone's going to resonatewith you know whether it's how
far you are in your journey orthe fact that you're a parent
or That you struggled with XYZsomeone's always going relate
to that and and that's what Ilove about podcasts or the
(21:32):
talking heads on social mediaor because I will listen and
if someone says it wasn't thatlong ago that I was worried
about paying my bills or I wasworried about paying uni fees
or anything I'm immediatelythere because I can relate to
all of those things right butI love it when when people are
you know start going well noone's going to be interested
in my story and I'm like No,they will. It's a little
(21:53):
process to extract all ofthose stories. So what's been
the most surprising benefit ofputting yourself front and
centre of your brand then?Because a lot of people hide
behind their logo and whenthey realise the power of
themselves, what have youfound a surprising benefit?
Well, I suppose for thisparticular business, my
coaching business, because I'mstill in the early stages of
(22:15):
that, the snowball effecthasn't taken place just yet.
But I think a good example ofthis would be in my baby food
business. So in 2016, Welaunched into Tesco Morrisons
and Waitrose all across the UKand Ireland within six weeks
of each other and I'd alsojust had a baby so my last
(22:38):
child was born in March 2016and we launched in these
launches started in May 2016.At that point, I was taking a
wee bit of time out of thebusiness and- A wee bit of
time out. I know, I know. Alot of maternity leave. I
know, I didn't get much timeoff, only a few weeks off.
(23:00):
Because we were so busy, wewere launching all our new
ambient snacks into theseretailers. And we knew that PR
was going to play a big partin this. And a lovely
marketing lady working with meat the time, and she put out a
press release. And, you know,we were able to value the
business. that we were goingto achieve, so it was like we
(23:21):
would value it at over £2million worth of business that
we were going to get withTesco and all this sort of
stuff, so we had a really goodpress release drafted up and
we put it out to the media,and the snowball effect of
that was huge, so the DailyMail picked it up, and then
the UTV Live, so it's a localnews channel at home, they
(23:41):
picked it up, so within acouple of days I was doing a
live interview with our localnews channel on TV, In my
kitchen, holding my baby in myarm. I was hoping you were
using your baby. So that,you know, I was just, I was
(24:02):
post baby, felt like absoluterubbish physically, drained,
tired, everything. Theaftermath of that, and I was
able to submit all that mediato our retail customers and
say, look what we're doing,you know, look what we're
doing to support this brand.And the value of that media
(24:22):
was hundreds of thousands ofpounds. I was interviewed on
radio stations in Germany, itwas really like Euro radio or
something random or like lotsand lots and lots of different
opportunities opened up out ofthat one press release being
sent to the local newspapers.Um, and then obviously being
(24:43):
picked up then by the DailyMail and lots of different
things. So, you know, pleasedon't underestimate the value
of putting yourself out there.I mean, I could have just
crawled into a hole at thatpoint in my life because I was
just, I just had a baby. I wasjust drained. Uh, it was
particularly traumatic birth.Uh, I was recovering from that
and you know, I put myself outthere and we like, What it did
(25:08):
for our business was huge andI always look back at that and
think, don't know how I didit, I don't know how I did
that, but I did and I willnever regret doing it because
what we achieved out of thatthing was amazing because as I
said earlier, the value ofthat media coverage, I mean
(25:29):
any brand today would justabsolutely kill for it, we got
so much media coverage. And itwas amazing. So, you know,
please don't underestimate thevalue of putting yourself out
there and telling a story,because my story was just very
simple. I was a mum, I createda baby brand and we got it
into all these retail storesand that was it and that's
(25:50):
what they picked up on and itwas great. So, it's a good
example. You know what, Imean, it's better than a good
example. It's the master classof how it's done, the
simplicity of the origins andit getting picked up. The
simplicity and beauty of yourstory and the value of your
product and how far thattravelled and I honestly don't
(26:14):
know how you did it. I haven'tbeen that mum twice. I'm not
going to lie, I barely managedto shower after turnbaker. It
was tough. I'm sure it was,but whatever was driving you,
you know, and that kind ofbrings me on to the next
question about if you have anyconfidence rituals or tricks
(26:37):
to help you feel camera readyor calm. There must have been
something in baby hormones,but if you kind of strip it
back, it must have been...There must have been some kind
of, I'm not going to saysurvival instinct, but there
was something driving youbecause there was a bigger
picture going on there, likeyou'd just given birth, the
(26:58):
most primal thing you can doas females, survival isn't it,
and you're bringing thisbeautiful new life and you
were also, look at my analogy,giving birth to this brand, in
the same way it wasflourishing and you were
launching it and You must havebeen exhausted when it was all
over, but I am in awe that youdid that. I mean, I'm in awe
(27:20):
of what you achieved anyway,but to have done that, I just
think, wow, I totally take myhat off to you. But that
story, I am going to tell yourstory to all my clients
forever because... You knowthose circumstances but what
you did you pushed yourselfjust a little bit just a
little bit more and that wasthe result of it because you
(27:42):
could have said I am exhaustedI've just given birth I am not
ready for this it's not theright time I'll take my normal
maternity leave that everybodydoes and everyone's in time to
do and you would have lostthat momentum. Absolutely no I
think When I look back, itdefinitely was out there. It
(28:05):
was one of those thingsthat... I suppose I really had
to dig deep to do because Lilywas only six weeks old and we
were still just finding ourfeet and everything, but it
was such a huge opportunityand I just couldn't let it go,
you know? And I'm so glad Idid it. It was, I think it was
the first live TV interview Iever did and then I got a
(28:26):
couple of, I did it, yeah, andI've done a couple of other
ones since then, you know, onBBC Breakfast and things like
that. And, you know, I think,I suppose, going back to your
question, And something Ireferred to earlier is that
you know your business, youknow your speciality, you know
your skills and Neverunderestimate the knowledge
(28:50):
that you have in your ownsector, in your own industry
and if you're passionate aboutit that will just flow, it
will just come out and it willjust happen and that's
something I always told myselfbecause as I said before we
started recording, I've done anumber of different sort of
public speaking radiointerviews, TV interviews and
things like that and you can'tpanic so much because I'm a
(29:12):
real introvert, I'm notextroverted in any way. I do
sort of, you know, I do lackself-confidence on certain
things, but trust that yourknowledge and your passion
will always shine through, youknow, and don't reject
opportunities because you fearthat you, you know, you're
afraid, you know, don't letthe fear take over. I think
(29:35):
just giving yourself anopportunity when one comes
along to actually say yes tosomething and trust that you
know the topic that you'retalking about. And your
passion will always shinethrough and that's your
confidence, you know, that isyour confidence in that
moment, in that topic, in thatsubject. Whilst you might not
be the completely confidentperson to the outside world
(29:59):
and you're not an extrovert,that inner confidence will
always come through in thetopic that you're
knowledgeable about and thething that you're passionate
about. So that's why I alwaystell myself It's just, you
know, I know my business and Iknow what I can do and I know
what I can achieve and I knowthat my passion will shine
through, so. And it reallydoes. And with you, you may
(30:20):
not be aware of it. I've seenit with you and I've seen it
with a lot of people. Whenyou're so passionate about
what you do, it shows on yourface. Your face is just...
I've got this opportunity totalk about something that I
love and it literally justemanates from your face and
you're absolutely right, youknow your business and when
you're proud of what you'vedone, when you've created
something so incredible, itdoes just come out in your
(30:43):
face and if you've got thegolden opportunity to get that
visibility, that publicity andyou're... It's there on a
plate, just go for it and itkind of breaks my heart a
little bit if I thought thatsomeone had that opportunity
and was too afraid to go forit because there's a few
simple tweaks that can be doneand what you've just described
(31:03):
like I said is the masterclass and you know that you
did it but you know yourbusiness and when you're
passionate about it it justabsolutely shines through. You
can see it in your face andyou can hear it in your voice
and I just think that is Suchan incredible story and I am
just leaning and listening tothis amazing story. So aside
from the masterclass inpublicity, normally do you
(31:26):
have any confidence tricks orrituals to help you feel
camera ready? Is thereanything that you would do?
Well, obviously my hair andmakeup,
I just, I think also justbreathing exercises though,
like if I was particularlysort of nervous or something,
I would just try and just do afew bit of breathing
(31:48):
exercises, a bit of boxbreathing or something like
that, you know, and just tryand just calm the nervous
system down a wee bit and tryand dip into that
parasympathetic nervous systemand just try and just Coach
myself mentally just you knowthat you know through whatever
the situation might be interms of general sort of
(32:12):
confidence I think it's justreally being yourself and you
know knowing that your valueto take up space in the area
that you're in is you knowworth it like it's there to be
had and We're all here to takeup our own space and we
shouldn't be shying away frombeing ourselves and really
(32:34):
just, I suppose, generallyreminding yourself that you
are valuable as a human beingand that your message is
valuable and other people willtake, I suppose, what they
need from your message,whatever that is that you're
trying to get out there. Yeah,that's amazing. Really good
advice. And I agree with youon the breathing. There's
(32:54):
never underestimate the powerof really good deep breathing
before you have a breathing.So do you have a particular
visibility channel that youlike? Is there something
that's giving you the biggestplatform like podcasts, video,
live events, social media? Isthere something that you favor
the most or are you exploringat the moment? I'm still
exploring it in thisparticular business so the
(33:15):
coaching business I'm stillexploring that a wee bit so
it's really the social mediaside of things and this
podcast is a good example ofpodcasting I think in previous
years you know you look at myproduct business PR is just it
cannot be underestimated andthat you know goes for any
product business it does notnecessarily food but I would
(33:36):
encourage any business ownerto look at PR and how they can
access that and We never paidfor PR in our previous product
business, I would never havepaid for PR so whilst yes, in
terms of social media andproduct businesses,
influencers can be very, verybeneficial to your business.
(33:58):
Please do look at the benefitsof PR and what you can achieve
out of that, because the valuethat you can get from that, I
gave a good example earlier,is not to be underestimated.
And yes, so at the minute forme right now in my coaching
business, it really I supposeis more focused on social
media and getting my messageout there and local networking
(34:18):
events, so local women inbusiness events, local Chamber
of Commerce events. And thenany food festivals that are on
here in Ireland, you know, I'mout there with my business
card. The Balmoral show now?Is it still on? Yeah, the
Balmoral show? Yeah, it'sactually on this week. My kids
were absolutely dying to go toit, but we've been sick all
(34:40):
week, so it's just a no.Definitely, I don't think we
have the energy to go to it.But yeah, so things like that,
Balmoral show, any sort offestivals throughout the Get
yourself out there and getyour business card out and
meet people face to facebecause having that
conversation with one foodbrand, me standing and having
(35:01):
a conversation with thefounder at an environment
where it's quite relaxed,you're at a food festival,
it's quite relaxed, they'rereally passionate about
telling you all about theirproduct and everything. You
know, there may be there maybe looking for some
information from someone likeme that can give them some
hints and tips and so that'swhat that's the kind of things
that are working for me at themoment. So interesting. I
(35:23):
think you're the first productbased business I've spoken
with on this podcast and it'sreally interesting because
your your product is rightthere in the moment and yeah.
Someone can taste it and givetheir opinion straight away.
Whereas coaches and serviceproviders, there's a lot of
due diligence has to be donebefore we can prove our worth.
(35:44):
So that's a really interestingperspective and the networking
and the PR and all things thatyou described. that you know
that that visibility it's gotto be constant and I've always
described it as like driving acar in the minute you take
your foot off the acceleratorit all stops you've just got
to keep going and tryeverything I think really sort
of focusing on two majorplatforms is good because
(36:06):
there's so many yeah you canoverwhelm yourself and you
don't have to do all thethings not everyone's sort of
comfortable turning up anddoing lives and weirdly for me
I find I Weirdly find iteasier. to go live than I do
recording myself, doing recordstuff, haven't got a clue
(36:27):
what's going on there, butI'll do six or seven attempts,
whereas if I just go live, Ican do it without thinking
about it, but it's theexperimenting and the trying
and working out what it is foryou, some people cringe with
the networking events, but Ithink you have to find the
right networking event, andthere's some that aren't
(36:48):
great, but there's some thatare amazing, and you know what
you've described having theright conversation with the
person in the room and thenall the follow-ups after that
as well but it's they're justall these little machines
going on around you that youdon't have to do them all but
experiment and find the onethat that's right for you and
(37:08):
I'm just so so enjoyedlistening to you Shauna it's
just unbelievable that storyis incredible that is going to
be the example I will be usingfrom this day forward. Where
can we find out more about youonline? And I put the links in
the show notes to thispodcast. Brilliant. So my
website is shaunablaire.com.So that's where you can find
(37:29):
out about my coaching, mymentoring business and all the
different things that I can dofor foodie founders or
aspiring entrepreneurs. Youcan find me on Instagram. I'm
at the foodie founder. And onFacebook, I'm
shaunablairefoodmentor. Ithink that's what it is. I
think it'sshaunablairefoodmentor. Yeah,
so that's all the places youcan find me at the moment. As
(37:53):
I'm only focusing on two ofthe social media things as
well. I'm not going to be aTikTok person, I don't think.
I'll leave that to myteenagers. You know what, it's
great for visibility, butyeah, it's a very strange
place at the moment. It's verystrange. So it's on my radar,
but I have to kind of psychmyself up for that. Yeah, it's
(38:17):
not quite getting the qualityfollowers that I wanted, shall
we say. Yeah, it's good forproduct businesses actually
because with my snack brandbeing, I do have a TikTok
account there and we were partof the TikTok shop. But like
with those per-food productsyou maybe don't do as much
volume on it, but I know mytwo older kids now, there's
(38:38):
TikTok shop parcels coming tothe house every day. Yes,
actually, yeah, my two have,yeah, and some very random,
innovative things. And you'rejust like, wow, who actually
conceptualized these? Butyeah, I think definitely for
products. Yeah, you'reabsolutely right. And who
knows what else is going tocome out in the future. Thank
(38:59):
you so much, Shauna. I'veabsolutely loved listening to
your story. And yeah, that isgoing to be part of my
experience from now on with myclients. I'm going to say,
watch this podcast withShauna. It's been a pleasure.
Thank you so much. You'rewelcome, Amanda. Thank Thank
you so much for spending timewith me today. If you have
(39:22):
enjoyed this episode, pleaseleave a review and share it
with a business bestie whomight also find it useful. You
have been listening to theGrow Your Brand With Amanda
podcast. If you want to knowmore about how I can help you
grow your brand, then visit mywebsite amandajane.co.uk or
come and say hi on Instagramat CoachAmandaJane. Bye for
now.
Welcome to the Grow Your BrandWith Amanda podcast, helping
you become a powerhouse brandwith bullseye messaging,
targeted visibility and scrollstopping content. I'm Amanda
Jane and I want to helpbusinesses like yours showcase
more of you so you're nothiding behind your logo, And
your audience gets to see thereal, authentic personality
(00:21):
behind your brand. Myphilosophy is the only way to
be comfortable in thespotlight is to truly believe
you belong there. And thattakes a little bit of work for
most business owners becausewe're not all naturals in
front of the camera ormicrophone. On this podcast,
I'm going to share lots ofactionable tips and advice to
enable you to grow your brandin a way that's comfortable
(00:42):
for you. I'll also befeaturing special guests who
will share their amazingjourneys with us. It's time to
grow your brand with Amanda,so let's get started.
Hello everyone and welcome tothe first episode of Grow Your
Brand With Amanda podcast. Sothis is the all new version of
(01:02):
my podcast and today I amreally happy to have a fellow
Northern Irelande, ShaunaBlair with me. Shauna is, she
spends her time coachingentrepreneurs who want to
launch their own food brand.Hello Shauna. Hi Amanda. Thank
you for joining me. Thank youso much for having me today.
It's a pleasure to be here.No, I'm really looking forward
(01:23):
to this because I don't oftenget people on my podcast who
share the same accent as me.Hopefully we won't gallop away
with our accents. So before weget stuck in and find out
about your absolutelyfascinating business, because
I just love meeting foodiesand even the thought of it
makes me hungry. We will startwith the questions. So do you
(01:45):
have a favorite motivationalsong? I was thinking about
this before I came on and Ilove music, I love any genre
of music, anything fromtraditional Irish music right
through to dance music, ravemusic, jazz music, anything. I
listen to a lot of music,especially when I'm working. I
have one of those Pomodorotimer things going. But I
(02:06):
think the thing that gets mereally sort of going is a bit
of dance music. I grew up inthe 80s and 90s and That
brings me back to my teenageyears, a lot of the Ibiza
dance music, which I love itand that really does the trick
for me. suppose there'snothing really in particular
in terms of the types theactual songs. It's really just
(02:30):
that genre that would reallyget me going. It just whisks
you back in town, doesn't it?I know. I have four kids, so
my older two, they're 20 and19 and they're heading out on
a Saturday night and thenightclubs don't really seem
to play this kind of musicreally anymore. But when it's
on on a Saturday night I'msort of like oh my god I wish
(02:52):
I was going out again and goto the disco and like that
that doesn't happen now thatrave music is not the thing I
had the time of my lifegrowing up in Ireland with the
clubs and the music and all ofthat and I do miss it and I
never find the same kind ofvibe in England but I know
exactly what you're describingand I'm just like oh I can't
(03:13):
believe that that kind of Themovement is gone. It was the
best time of my life. I lovedit. If I hear the 80s, 90s, it
just whisks me right back. Itdoes energise you, doesn't it?
It does. It definitely does. Ithink it brings you back to
just that It was a time ofyour life where it was
complete freedom, there was nomobile phones, there was no
(03:34):
cameras, it was just everybodyjust went out and enjoyed
themselves and it was great.Yeah, it was. It was the very
best of times. And do you havea motivational quote? I have a
couple actually, I wasthinking about this as well
and I think mine range fromfamily members right through
to other people. I think oneof the ones that was sort of
(03:56):
suggested to me many yearsago, like 15 years ago when I
started out in business wasAnd I have remembered that
ever since and at the time Inever really put a lot of
thought into it and what itactually meant because I was
kind of green and I didn'treally know what I was getting
into. My background is I comefrom a family business, a
(04:19):
family engineering business,working in also in sort
government offices here inNorthern Ireland and I started
my own food brand and so Forme to move from that
environment into being anentrepreneur took a lot of
getting uncomfortable in mysurroundings and pushing my
boundaries and learning a lotof new things and I very
(04:40):
quickly learned to, you know,realize the meaning behind get
comfortable with beinguncomfortable because every
single day I was learning newthings, I was pushing my
boundaries, I was puttingmyself into positions that I
never had been in before, youknow, speaking on Live TV,
speaking on camera, speakingon radio, different things
like that, being interviewedand, you know, up talking
(05:02):
public speaking and so gettingcomfortable with being
uncomfortable for me, it's alifelong thing really because
we should always be trying topush our boundaries and always
trying to I suppose just tryand maybe achieve more and
learn more in differentdifferent areas but yeah that
has been a big one for me andthen another one I actually
picked this up from my fatherlast week we were having a
(05:24):
chat just about life stuffreally and you know he was
saying to me it's not really aquote it's such as more of a
sort of a bit of a bit of aconversation but he was just
really talking about theimportance of just keeping
things steady and when allthrough your life just Keep
things steady. I think we weretalking about kids and my
(05:45):
nieces and nephews and theadvice that he would be giving
them for their life really isjust try and keep things
steady, don't get overlyexcited about things, don't
get overly impatient andparticularly don't get really
impatient if things aren'tgoing your way, your life will
unfold as it's meant to. Andjust try and stay
level-headed. Don't get intoany big dramas or anything
(06:05):
like that. And I thought, youknow, that's a really good bit
of advice for these youngerpeople that are, you know,
they're probably a bitimpatient, probably things
aren't happening as quickly asthey want them to. I think we
can all fall into that a weebit, you know, especially in
business, if you're pushingand pushing forward all the
time and things maybe aren'tunfolding as quickly as you
want them to, they willeventually, that will
(06:27):
eventually happen. You justtrust and keep a level head,
things will unfold. And thenfinally, I have been sick this
week, so I've been off sickwith the kids and I actually
had an opportunity to read abook from start to finish,
which is completely unheardof, this is like, this is
unheard of for me, it usuallytakes me a month to get
through a book, but wasreading a book and one of the
(06:50):
quotes that was in the bookwas, the right person, I'm
going to get this right nowbecause it's a really good
one, the right person with theright process never worries
about the outcome. And it'sreally about when you're
setting goals, it's not somuch the goal that you need to
be focused on. It's becomingthe type of person who can be
(07:11):
committed to the plan who willeventually achieve those
goals. And it's about becomingthe person that will achieve
those goals. So the rightperson with the right process
never worries about theoutcome. And I think that's
really can be a big reminderthat when we are setting all
these big goals for ourbusiness, Maybe we need to
think about what we need to doand the processes that we need
(07:35):
to put in place to ensure thatwe meet those goals and not
beat ourselves up about notachieving those goals in the
future then. Wow that's soamazing and I think you're
right a lot of people are sortof afraid of goals and afraid
of putting them down and thenif they've written the goals
down they don't think aboutthe steps that it's going to
take to achieve those goalsand but I really love that
(07:55):
it's quite profound. Yeah Ithink for me it was a big
realization this week becauseI have always struggled with
setting goals you know there'ssometimes you can set them and
they're a bit high in the skyand you know you're never
really gonna achieve them butyou just like these you put
these big And I think lookingat it from a different
(08:15):
perspective and actuallyworking from the bottom up and
actually saying, what kind ofperson do I need to become to
achieve those goals? And it'sabout changing your process
and changing your mindset,really. And plugging gaps. For
me, it was about identifyingthe gaps I needed to plug to
get to the next stage andidentifying the knowledge gaps
that I had, which was quiteuseful. I've been fixed on
(08:38):
goals and thinking what do Ineed to get from A to B and
plugging those gaps in butlooking at the process and
trusting the process if Ilearn this and I learn this
because when I started mybusiness you know had some
knowledge but not of things wewere talking about earlier.
What's the funnel, how to do asales page, the lead magnet,
you know that. Using the leadmagnet as the most basic of
(09:02):
examples we as consumers havebeen doing it all our lives
but to be on the other side ofit and create this thing that
everybody wants you know itall kind of slotted into place
when you think about behindthat but was it your
father-in-law that you said ummy own father yeah my father
yeah that's genius It's, youknow, just chill, don't run,
(09:25):
because you can find yourselfgetting into, not quite
hysteria, but things aren'thappening quick enough and I
think that's probably the agethat we're living in because
everything's instantaneous,isn't it? It's all there and I
just think, wow, that's reallygood advice, fantastic. It is
a good one, he's full of,obviously he's older, he's
full of advice and he's livedhis life and he's lived many
(09:48):
different lives and whateverand he's got loads of
information. Sort of tips andhints and whatever but I
thought it was a really goodone because you know I think
it caught up sort of gettinginto a bit of a tizzy as well
and sort of you know gettingpanicking about things and
panicking about things notworking out and oh god there's
another month gone andwhatever but I think I've come
to that stage now where I justrealised you know what it'll
(10:10):
happen if it's going to happenand if it's not going to
happen I cannot force it andit just You just got to go
with that I think. Conserveyour energy for other things
and then the get comfortablewith being uncomfortable I
think for me is the most soundpiece of advice. I was having
a chat with someone a coupleof days ago and we were
talking about know what makesyou uncomfortable and because
(10:34):
I've been doing this for awhile and you know your career
and all the things and I hadto start with that. What am I
not comfortable doing? Becausewhen you set up your own
business you've got to do alot of things that you're not
comfortable with and I thinkI've run out of things you
know because I've done so manythings that you described and
I know that I do a lot ofthings that other people don't
(10:55):
like the thought of like apodcast for example or videoed
or I'm standing up on a stageand speaking and doing all
those things and those thingsthat I've done a lot of, they
would absolutely scare theheart out of a lot of other
people so I've just beenthinking what are you know
what does pull me out of myown comfort zone, but that is
(11:16):
possibly I think the most It'sthe truest useful piece of
advice for anybody setting upa business and someone once
said that if you're preparedto do the things that others
aren't that's where thesuccess is and get in that
ring because there's only fewpeople that will do all the
things in the ring. And if youdon't want to do it, then
(11:40):
you're not going to be able topush yourself forward. So that
that is that is gold dust forme to get comfortable with
being uncomfortable becauseit's not comfortable running a
business and it's lonely andabsolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
There's things that you haveto do that you never dreamt
you'd do. And, you know,that's where the growth
happens, isn't it, really? Itis. And you learn, you
(12:01):
definitely do learn new thingsevery day. And I love that.
And I think that I've noticedwith doing this podcast,
there's always there's acommon denominator with
entrepreneurs and they'reprepared to take that next
risk and the next risk. Andthey're prepared to do things
without knowing the completeoutcome they can anticipate,
but they're never, you know,you can never be 100% certain
(12:21):
on the outcome. And thenthey'll go back to the drawing
board and do it again andthey'll do it again. And I
quite love that resilience inthose people because, you
know, they'll just keep tryingbecause, you know, when you
think about great people thathave gone before us, you know,
There's maybe thousands ofattempts to produce something
and they've kept going andkept going and if it weren't
for those people, you know, wewouldn't be enjoying the
(12:43):
things that we are today, soit's nice to cling on to that
thought, isn't it, so thankyou for that, that's amazing,
you've given me a little tripdown memory lately with my
wild youth in Ireland, so backto your amazing business, it
sounds absolutely fantastic,so what inspired you to start
it and how has your personalstory shaped your brand? So
(13:06):
for me, my story is like overthe last sort of 15 years I
come from a food productbackground so I don't come
from a coaching background ora corporate background really.
I started my own food businessback in 2010, so I launched
Ireland's first ever frozenbaby food company and over the
(13:30):
period of that 10-15 years ittransitioned into an ambient
range of baby food and snacks,so it was called Heavenly and
it was an organic baby foodbrand and we grew that over
the period of 10 years intoall the retailers across the
UK and Ireland. We were inTesco, Morrison, Sainsbury's,
(13:50):
Waitrose, Ocado, Amazon,Tesco, Super Value in Ireland
and we were exporting into 13countries globally and we grew
it quite well. Brexit andCovid came along with
different plans for us so thatliterally impacted our
business from the minuteBrexit was announced. And so
(14:11):
we sold that brand just lastyear. And it probably wasn't
where I wanted the journey togo. I wanted sort of different
plans in mind. Like a lot ofbusinesses, I know so many
food brands and so many otherbusinesses that went out of
business because of Brexit,because of the impact of it,
because of the impact of, youknow, supply chain and just,
(14:33):
you know, the added costs ofthat as well. And then COVID
was just the icing on the cakefor so many companies. So we
sold that brand last year, butfrom sort of 2022 until
current, I launched anotherbrand as well called Beam, so
that was a healthy snackingbrand and it was all allergen
(14:56):
free and healthy and whatever.That particular product I
think I'm rejigging theproduct at the moment and over
the last year or so I havebeen coaching and mentoring
other food finders in theirown businesses, so I have over
15 years of experience in thefood industry so I'm an
entrepreneur side and I'm notin a particular role within a
(15:19):
factory or anything. All areasof the business from
manufacturing right through tolaunching your product to
choosing packaging and all theregulations that all the
things that you have to put onyour packaging and so for me
sort of a natural transitionto mentor other food founders.
I have digital products that Iwant to launch and for me
(15:43):
looking back on where Istarted and sort of the lack
of knowledge that I had when Istarted and the lack of
experience that I had, I camefrom with no knowledge of the
food industry and to thenlaunching food products and
getting them into retailers, Iwant to package that up and
help other food founders andaspiring entrepreneurs create
(16:05):
and sell their own foodproducts. It's incredible to
have had no experience and youknow the markets that you
described and those retailersand you obviously had
competitors within that aswell. I think what you
achieved is unbelievable andyou know the challenges of
(16:26):
Brexit and Northern Irelandhad its own challenges with
Brexit and then Covid. It'sjust phenomenal but now that
you're left with this It's amassive knowledge bank and
you've got this new brand andyou can help other people in
the digital products. I'm justthinking, wow, there's
absolutely no limit now towhat you can do with all that
(16:48):
and helping other founders dothat. Exactly what you've done
is just incredible and soachievable because you've done
it in the hardest ofcircumstances. So what was the
turning point when yourealized that you had to be
more visible to grow wheneveryou were setting up because 15
(17:09):
years or well, what year didyou sell your business? Was
that 2019? So I sold theHeavenly brand just last year.
I still own the business butwe just sold the actual brand
itself. So I think over thecourse of 15 years learning
you know that I had to becomevisible was fairly early on
you know I was back 15 yearsago there was very few female
(17:32):
founders in the food industryand that's you know there was
very very few and I think forme to have some cut through
and to be able to shout aboutmy brand and things like that
I learned that You knowgetting out there and being
visible so it's something I'velearned over the last course
of the 15 years but recentlyyou know for me I'm in my mid
(17:55):
40s to be on social media andtalking doing lives and things
is you know you're really sortof putting yourself out of
your comfort zone but as Isaid earlier you have to get
comfortable beinguncomfortable and just
realizing that people buy frompeople and For me to be
visible and actually forpeople to see that I'm just a
(18:16):
human being, I'm just a mum, Istarted a business just like
many other people, but youknow, to see that I am
actually just a human beingand be able to connect with me
and in terms of my, you know,the visibility that I have,
you know, so sort it's been aculmination of learning over
the last 15 years of beingvisible is really important
that people can actuallyconnect with another human
(18:39):
being so, you know, It's just,I suppose, realizing that
people do buy from people andrealizing that your
personality will be whatpeople will buy and your you
know your ability tocommunicate and all that sort
of stuff so yes for me itwasn't just a light bulb thing
really it was sort of aculmination of learning and
(19:00):
realizing that puttingyourself out there whilst it's
really difficult for somepeople you know and I look
back to 15 years ago and wasreally really tough for me I
had no skill you know trainingin that area no training in
public speaking but you learnas you go along just to to try
and make it work and the thingthat I realized is just the
(19:23):
fact that you know yourbusiness and when you're
speaking about your business,when you're speaking about
what you can do for otherpeople, you know what you're
talking about. So if somebodysaid to me, I want you to go
on social media and I want youto talk about the benefits of
fertilizing your lawn Iwouldn't have a clue but if
(19:44):
somebody said to me I want youto go on social media and I
want you to do a quick videoabout the benefits of PR for
your food brand well thenthat's fine I can talk about
that so just remind yourselfof you know you know your
business so getting visible isa wee bit easier When you
realize that, that you knowwhat you're talking about. And
(20:06):
that's really good advicebecause people forget the
power of their own story andthe people that I talk to and
the first thing they say is,but who's going to be
interested in me? Genuinelyand you know even that that
that founder story or that youknow you're a parent or that
you had to learn everythingthat you did on YouTube or
(20:28):
that you were followingsomeone else on social media
that's always so interestingand even for someone like
yourself you're describing atime not that long ago where
social media wasn't as bigthen as it is now. There
weren't that many femalefounders in the food industry
that you've just described andI'm immediately hooked I'm
thinking yeah you're rightthere wasn't and thinking well
(20:49):
that immediately is immediateinterest story because there
was that you know thereweren't that many female in
the food industry and italways takes someone else to
point out to people that Thatbit of their story is
interesting and then when youdo that they're like oh really
and then you can see theconfidence start to build and
(21:11):
people buy from people, thatis never going to get old and
you might have something inyour personality that
someone's going to resonatewith you know whether it's how
far you are in your journey orthe fact that you're a parent
or That you struggled with XYZsomeone's always going relate
to that and and that's what Ilove about podcasts or the
(21:32):
talking heads on social mediaor because I will listen and
if someone says it wasn't thatlong ago that I was worried
about paying my bills or I wasworried about paying uni fees
or anything I'm immediatelythere because I can relate to
all of those things right butI love it when when people are
you know start going well noone's going to be interested
in my story and I'm like No,they will. It's a little
(21:53):
process to extract all ofthose stories. So what's been
the most surprising benefit ofputting yourself front and
centre of your brand then?Because a lot of people hide
behind their logo and whenthey realise the power of
themselves, what have youfound a surprising benefit?
Well, I suppose for thisparticular business, my
coaching business, because I'mstill in the early stages of
(22:15):
that, the snowball effecthasn't taken place just yet.
But I think a good example ofthis would be in my baby food
business. So in 2016, Welaunched into Tesco Morrisons
and Waitrose all across the UKand Ireland within six weeks
of each other and I'd alsojust had a baby so my last
(22:38):
child was born in March 2016and we launched in these
launches started in May 2016.At that point, I was taking a
wee bit of time out of thebusiness and- A wee bit of
time out. I know, I know. Alot of maternity leave. I
know, I didn't get much timeoff, only a few weeks off.
(23:00):
Because we were so busy, wewere launching all our new
ambient snacks into theseretailers. And we knew that PR
was going to play a big partin this. And a lovely
marketing lady working with meat the time, and she put out a
press release. And, you know,we were able to value the
business. that we were goingto achieve, so it was like we
(23:21):
would value it at over £2million worth of business that
we were going to get withTesco and all this sort of
stuff, so we had a really goodpress release drafted up and
we put it out to the media,and the snowball effect of
that was huge, so the DailyMail picked it up, and then
the UTV Live, so it's a localnews channel at home, they
(23:41):
picked it up, so within acouple of days I was doing a
live interview with our localnews channel on TV, In my
kitchen, holding my baby in myarm. I was hoping you were
using your baby. So that,you know, I was just, I was
(24:02):
post baby, felt like absoluterubbish physically, drained,
tired, everything. Theaftermath of that, and I was
able to submit all that mediato our retail customers and
say, look what we're doing,you know, look what we're
doing to support this brand.And the value of that media
(24:22):
was hundreds of thousands ofpounds. I was interviewed on
radio stations in Germany, itwas really like Euro radio or
something random or like lotsand lots and lots of different
opportunities opened up out ofthat one press release being
sent to the local newspapers.Um, and then obviously being
(24:43):
picked up then by the DailyMail and lots of different
things. So, you know, pleasedon't underestimate the value
of putting yourself out there.I mean, I could have just
crawled into a hole at thatpoint in my life because I was
just, I just had a baby. I wasjust drained. Uh, it was
particularly traumatic birth.Uh, I was recovering from that
and you know, I put myself outthere and we like, What it did
(25:08):
for our business was huge andI always look back at that and
think, don't know how I didit, I don't know how I did
that, but I did and I willnever regret doing it because
what we achieved out of thatthing was amazing because as I
said earlier, the value ofthat media coverage, I mean
(25:29):
any brand today would justabsolutely kill for it, we got
so much media coverage. And itwas amazing. So, you know,
please don't underestimate thevalue of putting yourself out
there and telling a story,because my story was just very
simple. I was a mum, I createda baby brand and we got it
into all these retail storesand that was it and that's
(25:50):
what they picked up on and itwas great. So, it's a good
example. You know what, Imean, it's better than a good
example. It's the master classof how it's done, the
simplicity of the origins andit getting picked up. The
simplicity and beauty of yourstory and the value of your
product and how far thattravelled and I honestly don't
(26:14):
know how you did it. I haven'tbeen that mum twice. I'm not
going to lie, I barely managedto shower after turnbaker. It
was tough. I'm sure it was,but whatever was driving you,
you know, and that kind ofbrings me on to the next
question about if you have anyconfidence rituals or tricks
(26:37):
to help you feel camera readyor calm. There must have been
something in baby hormones,but if you kind of strip it
back, it must have been...There must have been some kind
of, I'm not going to saysurvival instinct, but there
was something driving youbecause there was a bigger
picture going on there, likeyou'd just given birth, the
(26:58):
most primal thing you can doas females, survival isn't it,
and you're bringing thisbeautiful new life and you
were also, look at my analogy,giving birth to this brand, in
the same way it wasflourishing and you were
launching it and You must havebeen exhausted when it was all
over, but I am in awe that youdid that. I mean, I'm in awe
(27:20):
of what you achieved anyway,but to have done that, I just
think, wow, I totally take myhat off to you. But that
story, I am going to tell yourstory to all my clients
forever because... You knowthose circumstances but what
you did you pushed yourselfjust a little bit just a
little bit more and that wasthe result of it because you
(27:42):
could have said I am exhaustedI've just given birth I am not
ready for this it's not theright time I'll take my normal
maternity leave that everybodydoes and everyone's in time to
do and you would have lostthat momentum. Absolutely no I
think When I look back, itdefinitely was out there. It
(28:05):
was one of those thingsthat... I suppose I really had
to dig deep to do because Lilywas only six weeks old and we
were still just finding ourfeet and everything, but it
was such a huge opportunityand I just couldn't let it go,
you know? And I'm so glad Idid it. It was, I think it was
the first live TV interview Iever did and then I got a
(28:26):
couple of, I did it, yeah, andI've done a couple of other
ones since then, you know, onBBC Breakfast and things like
that. And, you know, I think,I suppose, going back to your
question, And something Ireferred to earlier is that
you know your business, youknow your speciality, you know
your skills and Neverunderestimate the knowledge
(28:50):
that you have in your ownsector, in your own industry
and if you're passionate aboutit that will just flow, it
will just come out and it willjust happen and that's
something I always told myselfbecause as I said before we
started recording, I've done anumber of different sort of
public speaking radiointerviews, TV interviews and
things like that and you can'tpanic so much because I'm a
(29:12):
real introvert, I'm notextroverted in any way. I do
sort of, you know, I do lackself-confidence on certain
things, but trust that yourknowledge and your passion
will always shine through, youknow, and don't reject
opportunities because you fearthat you, you know, you're
afraid, you know, don't letthe fear take over. I think
(29:35):
just giving yourself anopportunity when one comes
along to actually say yes tosomething and trust that you
know the topic that you'retalking about. And your
passion will always shinethrough and that's your
confidence, you know, that isyour confidence in that
moment, in that topic, in thatsubject. Whilst you might not
be the completely confidentperson to the outside world
(29:59):
and you're not an extrovert,that inner confidence will
always come through in thetopic that you're
knowledgeable about and thething that you're passionate
about. So that's why I alwaystell myself It's just, you
know, I know my business and Iknow what I can do and I know
what I can achieve and I knowthat my passion will shine
through, so. And it reallydoes. And with you, you may
(30:20):
not be aware of it. I've seenit with you and I've seen it
with a lot of people. Whenyou're so passionate about
what you do, it shows on yourface. Your face is just...
I've got this opportunity totalk about something that I
love and it literally justemanates from your face and
you're absolutely right, youknow your business and when
you're proud of what you'vedone, when you've created
something so incredible, itdoes just come out in your
(30:43):
face and if you've got thegolden opportunity to get that
visibility, that publicity andyou're... It's there on a
plate, just go for it and itkind of breaks my heart a
little bit if I thought thatsomeone had that opportunity
and was too afraid to go forit because there's a few
simple tweaks that can be doneand what you've just described
(31:03):
like I said is the masterclass and you know that you
did it but you know yourbusiness and when you're
passionate about it it justabsolutely shines through. You
can see it in your face andyou can hear it in your voice
and I just think that is Suchan incredible story and I am
just leaning and listening tothis amazing story. So aside
from the masterclass inpublicity, normally do you
(31:26):
have any confidence tricks orrituals to help you feel
camera ready? Is thereanything that you would do?
Well, obviously my hair andmakeup,
I just, I think also justbreathing exercises though,
like if I was particularlysort of nervous or something,
I would just try and just do afew bit of breathing
(31:48):
exercises, a bit of boxbreathing or something like
that, you know, and just tryand just calm the nervous
system down a wee bit and tryand dip into that
parasympathetic nervous systemand just try and just Coach
myself mentally just you knowthat you know through whatever
the situation might be interms of general sort of
(32:12):
confidence I think it's justreally being yourself and you
know knowing that your valueto take up space in the area
that you're in is you knowworth it like it's there to be
had and We're all here to takeup our own space and we
shouldn't be shying away frombeing ourselves and really
(32:34):
just, I suppose, generallyreminding yourself that you
are valuable as a human beingand that your message is
valuable and other people willtake, I suppose, what they
need from your message,whatever that is that you're
trying to get out there. Yeah,that's amazing. Really good
advice. And I agree with youon the breathing. There's
(32:54):
never underestimate the powerof really good deep breathing
before you have a breathing.So do you have a particular
visibility channel that youlike? Is there something
that's giving you the biggestplatform like podcasts, video,
live events, social media? Isthere something that you favor
the most or are you exploringat the moment? I'm still
exploring it in thisparticular business so the
(33:15):
coaching business I'm stillexploring that a wee bit so
it's really the social mediaside of things and this
podcast is a good example ofpodcasting I think in previous
years you know you look at myproduct business PR is just it
cannot be underestimated andthat you know goes for any
product business it does notnecessarily food but I would
(33:36):
encourage any business ownerto look at PR and how they can
access that and We never paidfor PR in our previous product
business, I would never havepaid for PR so whilst yes, in
terms of social media andproduct businesses,
influencers can be very, verybeneficial to your business.
(33:58):
Please do look at the benefitsof PR and what you can achieve
out of that, because the valuethat you can get from that, I
gave a good example earlier,is not to be underestimated.
And yes, so at the minute forme right now in my coaching
business, it really I supposeis more focused on social
media and getting my messageout there and local networking
(34:18):
events, so local women inbusiness events, local Chamber
of Commerce events. And thenany food festivals that are on
here in Ireland, you know, I'mout there with my business
card. The Balmoral show now?Is it still on? Yeah, the
Balmoral show? Yeah, it'sactually on this week. My kids
were absolutely dying to go toit, but we've been sick all
(34:40):
week, so it's just a no.Definitely, I don't think we
have the energy to go to it.But yeah, so things like that,
Balmoral show, any sort offestivals throughout the Get
yourself out there and getyour business card out and
meet people face to facebecause having that
conversation with one foodbrand, me standing and having
(35:01):
a conversation with thefounder at an environment
where it's quite relaxed,you're at a food festival,
it's quite relaxed, they'rereally passionate about
telling you all about theirproduct and everything. You
know, there may be there maybe looking for some
information from someone likeme that can give them some
hints and tips and so that'swhat that's the kind of things
that are working for me at themoment. So interesting. I
(35:23):
think you're the first productbased business I've spoken
with on this podcast and it'sreally interesting because
your your product is rightthere in the moment and yeah.
Someone can taste it and givetheir opinion straight away.
Whereas coaches and serviceproviders, there's a lot of
due diligence has to be donebefore we can prove our worth.
(35:44):
So that's a really interestingperspective and the networking
and the PR and all things thatyou described. that you know
that that visibility it's gotto be constant and I've always
described it as like driving acar in the minute you take
your foot off the acceleratorit all stops you've just got
to keep going and tryeverything I think really sort
of focusing on two majorplatforms is good because
(36:06):
there's so many yeah you canoverwhelm yourself and you
don't have to do all thethings not everyone's sort of
comfortable turning up anddoing lives and weirdly for me
I find I Weirdly find iteasier. to go live than I do
recording myself, doing recordstuff, haven't got a clue
(36:27):
what's going on there, butI'll do six or seven attempts,
whereas if I just go live, Ican do it without thinking
about it, but it's theexperimenting and the trying
and working out what it is foryou, some people cringe with
the networking events, but Ithink you have to find the
right networking event, andthere's some that aren't
(36:48):
great, but there's some thatare amazing, and you know what
you've described having theright conversation with the
person in the room and thenall the follow-ups after that
as well but it's they're justall these little machines
going on around you that youdon't have to do them all but
experiment and find the onethat that's right for you and
(37:08):
I'm just so so enjoyedlistening to you Shauna it's
just unbelievable that storyis incredible that is going to
be the example I will be usingfrom this day forward. Where
can we find out more about youonline? And I put the links in
the show notes to thispodcast. Brilliant. So my
website is shaunablaire.com.So that's where you can find
(37:29):
out about my coaching, mymentoring business and all the
different things that I can dofor foodie founders or
aspiring entrepreneurs. Youcan find me on Instagram. I'm
at the foodie founder. And onFacebook, I'm
shaunablairefoodmentor. Ithink that's what it is. I
think it'sshaunablairefoodmentor. Yeah,
so that's all the places youcan find me at the moment. As
(37:53):
I'm only focusing on two ofthe social media things as
well. I'm not going to be aTikTok person, I don't think.
I'll leave that to myteenagers. You know what, it's
great for visibility, butyeah, it's a very strange
place at the moment. It's verystrange. So it's on my radar,
but I have to kind of psychmyself up for that. Yeah, it's
(38:17):
not quite getting the qualityfollowers that I wanted, shall
we say. Yeah, it's good forproduct businesses actually
because with my snack brandbeing, I do have a TikTok
account there and we were partof the TikTok shop. But like
with those per-food productsyou maybe don't do as much
volume on it, but I know mytwo older kids now, there's
(38:38):
TikTok shop parcels coming tothe house every day. Yes,
actually, yeah, my two have,yeah, and some very random,
innovative things. And you'rejust like, wow, who actually
conceptualized these? Butyeah, I think definitely for
products. Yeah, you'reabsolutely right. And who
knows what else is going tocome out in the future. Thank
(38:59):
you so much, Shauna. I'veabsolutely loved listening to
your story. And yeah, that isgoing to be part of my
experience from now on with myclients. I'm going to say,
watch this podcast withShauna. It's been a pleasure.
Thank you so much. You'rewelcome, Amanda. Thank Thank
you so much for spending timewith me today. If you have
(39:22):
enjoyed this episode, pleaseleave a review and share it
with a business bestie whomight also find it useful. You
have been listening to theGrow Your Brand With Amanda
podcast. If you want to knowmore about how I can help you
grow your brand, then visit mywebsite amandajane.co.uk or
come and say hi on Instagramat CoachAmandaJane. Bye for
now.
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